Cremes

Today was a girl’s day out of epic proportions, ending with a family outing, as my time in Texas comes to an end. We went out to the wedding boutique this morning, me, Valerie, Jamie and even Grandma came out for the ride. I tried on my dress and it looks great, all nice and new and shiny. I’m definitely going to grow my hair out for the wedding, I decided today. Then we started on the bridesmaids dresses and that took awhile! I had decided on the cornflower color a few months back, then I thought it might be too much on the silver side and decided to look at the fabric swatches and see from there what I liked best. I really liked a sapphire color, but when we saw a whole dress in that color I quickly changed my mind. In the end, the cornflower looked best. We got Jamie to try on the halter style dress that they had in stock, it was a dark purply color, but it looked really nice on her. So hopefully it will look nice on everyone! They will be in by December, so I’ll be bringing them back with me so everyone can get theirs altered and prettified.

Tonight we’re going out to A Mystery to Me Dinner Theatre, and they have a Phanton of the Opera theme going on, so that’s nifty. It should be fun to get out for awhile before packing up a storm. I haven’t really decided what’s coming and what’s staying yet so it should be loads of fun. I still have a billion clothes that need folding and washing first (not in that order). Anyways, I should get ready to go. This is probably my last blog from Texas, and who knows when I’ll be getting my laptop! I won’t have the internet while I’m home anyways, so it’ll be until a week from Sunday about before I’m back online! Don’t miss me too much!

We have returned from our mini-vacation! I’m now battling a sore throat that is so painful, I couldn’t sleep. Not to mention really strange arm muscle pain.

I met Mike at the Cingular store which is somewhat in between this house and his work. We wanted to beat the traffic and get on the road sooner, since it usually takes him about 45 minutes to get home. So we were on our way, and Mike called asking if I brought his laptop, and I was like why? The hotel charges $10 a day for freakin’ internet! And he wanted the directions to the place, so we had to turn back around and grab them, so that put us 30 minutes behind schedule. While he was waiting, I told him to bring his cell phone into the Cingular store because it’s been dying a lot lately and he needed to do something about it. He heard his options, and apparently decided to think about it, because he was sitting outside when we arrived. We switched cars (his mom took the truck and we took the Jeep - which I spent almost 3 hours cleaning and getting cleaned on Friday afternoon… 4 boxes of trash/Jamie’s stuff I got outta that thing!!) and then we were almost on the road… but then Mike decided to get a new phone. His two options were: cheaper phone using insurance but no choice of phone, OR buy new phone. I told Mike if he was going to buy a new phone to do it then, so he wouldn’t have to worry about it later. It took a bit of musing, but he finally settled on a black Samsung camera phone. So we’re delayed now about an hour or so. We still hadn’t eaten dinner, but neither of us were hungry, so we decided to drive past the Houston traffic and then find somewheres in a little town outside the city limits.

It took us awhile to get out of Houston too, there was apparently an accident somewheres on the freeway, but I never saw it. We took the HOV lane for awhile which saved us a lot of time, and then eventually stopped at a Subway about 30-45 minutes outside the city. I still wasn’t hungry then, but knew I should eat something, so I grabbed my sub and we ate and then we were off again. Eventually, we needed a pit stop and went to Buc-ee’s, which has the funniest billboards leading up to it. I don’t know if they are a chain or something, but that place is pretty snazzy for a rest stop. They had decorative blankets in the restrooms and stuff. We grabbed some Pepto in case Mike’s San Antonio virus returned (which it did) and some juice for the last 30 minutes or so of the trip.

We pulled into the hotel, parked, checked in, and got settled. I wanted to go down to the hotel bar for a drink, but Mike wasn’t feeling good enough. We ended up taking a little walk on the riverwalk to the pharmacy (CVS on the Riverwalk - that’s what the sign says!) and bought some shower stuff for me and a disposable camera to take pictures, since I completely forgot to bring the digital (hey - I had like one hour to pack for both of us, darn Jeep). Then we went back to the hotel and chilled for the remainder of the night.

Next day we slept in and decided to get brunch on the riverwalk. We ended up going to a Mexican place, I believe called Rio Cantina. My goodness. Our lunch came to $46 with tip. Lunch!! I could hardly start mine, let alone finish. Huge portion, and all of it spicy! Usually we make a fair dent in our chips and salsa but we barely touched them. We had each a pina colada, and those in themselves were $6.75 each. We vowed to never return as we left.

We had made tentative plans to go to Splashtown in San Antonio, but Mike didn’t really want to go and instead we decided to spend Sunday at Schlitterbahn, which is on the way back to Houston. Both waterparks, by the way. So on Saturday, we went on one of the little riverboat cruises, pretty much a tourist information session on a boat, but it was nice. It was a beautiful, sunny, hot weekend too. After that, we went to the mall and cleaned out Aeropostale. We also picked up some cute things from a place called Primarily Purple (apparently Ty came out with a set of Pink beanie babies! So cute!) and grabbed a CD from Sam Goody. We grabbed a little snack in the food court and headed back to the hotel, taking a few pictures along the way.

Back at the hotel, we dumped our stuff on the floor and took a little nap (after Mike played a few games on his new cell phone), before washing up and going out for a late dinner. We went to a place called Michelino’s, and our dinner cost us half of what our lunch came to. And the restaurant had higher dinner prices, because we walked by it on our way back to the hotel, and the spaghetti was double in the evening what it was in the day. So yeah, we’ll definitely return to this place for a much cheaper (and delicious!… and non-spicy!) meal.

After that, we went to hear some jazz in one of the bars in the hotel. This one was owned by Jim Cullum, an old coot jazz musician who apparently played there since the late 60s. The place was a bit of a rip off. We sat there for an hour and a half, and we only heard three jazz tunes (they were each about 7-10 minutes long, to be fair) and we were charged 5 bucks each cover charge and we had to buy at least one drink each. My plain ol’ screwdriver with the cheapest vodka they had was $8! Mike was again not feeling well, so I drank mine and his drink. Those babies were a tad on the strong side too. But yeah, after finishing the drinks, I was kinda in the mood to get out of there. Upon leaving, we discovered that Jim Cullum wasn’t even there that night, the Steve Martin-lookalike playing the trumpet thing wasn’t even him! Gypped!

I convinced Mike to take me to a disco that was on the riverwalk, no too far from our hotel. It’s called Polly Esthers and it had three levels, one 90s, one 70s (the brochure bragged about a light up disco floor.. excuse me, but flashing lights on it from the ceiling DOESN’T COUNT!), and then 80s music at the top. We spent the entire hour or so that we were there in the 80s part. Mike attempted to use the restrooms, but there was no door so anyone could go in. We danced quite a bit, but I could tell Mike was achin’ to leave, so we left and returned to the hotel. It was around 2am when we finally went to sleep and we set an alarm for 9am to go to the Schlitterbahn waterpark.

I don’t know how we managed to get up. Mike had to tickle me awake because I was super sleepy! Anyways, we got up and got ready, cleaned our stuff up and checked out. We needed to buy towels and ended up going on a mad hunt for them. We stopped at a gas station and the lady gave us directions that would be great for a local, but we got lost and had to stop at another gas station, making a loop around the area. We went three places before we found the stinkin’ towels, but we got discounted tickets at H.E.B. so at least we wouldn’t have to bother buying them at the park, because we had no idea what the lines would be like.

So we get there and the place isn’t all that busy. We went on some tubing rides and walked around. I had my very first (and second) tastes of Dippin’ Dots, which I had made my mission to eat some that weekend. Man, they were good! I tried the Rainbow Ice and Mint Chocolate flavours, and Mike had Chocolate, Vanilla, and Cookies’n'Cream. The park was fun, I got to walk around barefoot the whole day because most of the place has green padded walkways (some astroturf-like stuff, but softer), I say most because there was a few times I was forced to walk on very hot cement. In the end Mike bought me some flipflops at the exhorbitant price of $20. But they fit! My favourite sketchers sandals decided to rebel against me and give me blisters, so at least I have something to walk in now.

I spent the whole day and most of the evening wearing my damp shorts that I put on over my bathing suit bottom, but I think in hindsight that may not have been the best idea. I have the hugest sore throat now. I really hope that it doesn’t turn into anything because I’m flying home this weekend and I can’t be all stuffed up when I fly because that could result in damage to my ears. Bah humbug, it looks like I’m never going to leave this place on time.

But in all, it was a very fun weekend and I’m sorry that it had to end. My last week here pretty much consists of me being sick and alone here at the house while doing schoolwork, then I have to go home and face reality. Not fun.

Well, my time in Texas is nearing to a close, I can’t believe how freakin’ fast this summer went! It does not feel like I’ve been here for four months (although I’m sure my mom thinks it feels like longer) and I’m really dreading having to leave. I’m going to go back home and freeze to death for sure. And then I’ll be without my cutie as well. :( But I still have a week and a half or so left, so we’re making the best of it.

We found a 4 star hotel in San Antonio, right downtown on the Riverwalk, for 60$ a night on Priceline.com so that was awesome. We’re heading out Friday after Mike is done work for the weekend, which will be really nice. We’re staying at the Hyatt Regency, and from the website it looks very posh. Fun fun! It’ll be nice to kick back and spend our last weekend together there. Man, I already can’t wait for Christmas to get here. I can’t believe it’s already been over 6 months that we last went for our “post-engagement” trip.

Ugh, I really don’t want to have to go home and face reality. But definitely this Christmas, I am NOT BRINGING SCHOOLWORK. I am taking a vacation! I’m hoping I have a good, long vacation too. But it’s looking like 4 exams this December, so I may not get off scot-free like I hoped. I guess we’ll see when it gets here.

Anyways, time to go do that school junk!

Man, I just spent the last three hours pouring over textbook prices from Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. I made an Excel spreadsheet to compare new and used from both sites AND what Acadia’s Campus store is charging for them all! I got two for 2$ which I’m really impressed with. I just ordered them all and man, I can’t believe it took so long. Only one book is going to end up purchased at the Acadia bookstore, and only because the Amazon.com international shipping rate for a friggin’ book is $9.79! A book! One book had to get sent to Texas to really cash in on the savings, but in total, I saved $171.68 over the Campus store. GO ME!! When you’re trying to save pennies, it pays to spend three hours pouring over spreadsheets. That’s half a month’s rent I just saved myself! :D I’m also saving 15$ a month on utilities this year with the lovely Vonage. We have to pay full price for internet, but we get our phone line for a mere $20. And it will be a Halifax number, so all you Haligonians out there can call me for no cost! Wee! But yeah, I’m all about saving the dough this year, especially since I do NOT want to have a part time job with the millions of essays and reading that I will have to do!

Anyways, I just thought that I would brag about how much money I saved so when I get comments (HINT) then I will have constant bliss from remembering the occasion. :D

Well, today I’ve felt pretty good, but I’ve also been under some sort of illness house arrest for the past few days because it seemed that anytime I left the house for like 30 minutes I was suddenly really sick by the time I got home. Going to Bed Bath and Beyond the other day, I thought I was going to pass out upon entering the store! (Picked up a few good things for school before I staggered out though!) Val’s promising me a shopping trip sometimes this week, so that’ll be great. It’ll be nice to get out among the living again. I’ve only recently been able to eat chicken with any sort of ease, but bread still hurts a little. I have my “post-operative checkup” on Thursday.

Been working on Spanish but I haven’t really started my second history course. Technically, I still have an exam to prepare for, but I’m not going to worry too much about it because I’m having communication difficulties with my professor. And I have the second half of it and all my books right in front of me so it’s not like I’m waiting on the exam to continue, which is basically why I was so antsy to write my Spanish exam. I’m glad that she didn’t take off the points for the things that she included in the exam that weren’t in the dang chapters that I covered. That was a nasty trick, if you ask me. An A- is a pretty good grade, and I’m happy with it. I think that it brought my GPA up by at least 0.2 points!

I’ve been playing the old school Link’s Awakening (the original Gameboy version in all 4 colors) on my new SP, the screen looks so huge compared to the tiny display. I didn’t even realize that the Advance and the SP were so much bigger than the old ones. But the game is just as fun even though it doesn’t utilize the entire screen. I’m about to start the 5th dungeon. I sorta gave up on playing Final Fantasy 1 because the story kinda sucks. I’ll go back to it though! I figure that by the time that I finish with Link’s Awakening, it’ll be time to return home and I’ll be starting The Minish Cap for my plane journey!

Anyways, I’m off to go order my school textbooks off of Amazon in an attempt to save money from evil university bookstore, but I have to order them soon if I want to get them in time for my classes!

Well, I survived. I am here, quite alive, typing this out. But my jaw still hurts like there’s no tomorrow and I can hardly eat anything. I’ve eaten so much pudding in the last few days I could revolt. It’s pretty much the only way I can take my medicine too, so I have like 6 puddings a day for my antibiotic and the painkiller. The painkiller, however, makes me feel like death so I’m not sure which is worse: being immobilized in bed or sitting up with throbbing pain. It’s been really lonely the last couple days, I’ve been here all alone all day, mostly stuck in bed. I’ve only made it to the computer a couple times but there’s never anyone online and no one answers my emails, so I’m still alone. Mike being gone to work really sucks because he doesn’t get back until later in the day, so I have to entertain myself until he gets home. Even the chihuahua didn’t want to be around me yesterday, so it was really lonely. I called mom a couple times since she was the only person around that I could reach. Mike got me a Build-A-Bear the other day (it came to almost 50$!) and we named him Diente, which is Spanish for teeth. It’s the cutest bunny. So soft, too. I just have to keep Bailey away from it. But yeah, it has been really lonely. It’s great once Mike gets home but until then usually sleeping off the pain is my best option. Although this morning I was feeling good enough to get up around 9 and shower, so that’s a good sign. Yesterday I don’t think I was out of bed until somewhere in the vicinity of 1pm. I haven’t really felt like doing much studying yet though, although today was the day I was supposed to get back to it. I still feel really awful. And once I take the painkiller I don’t think I’ll be very awake either. Anyways, maybe I should get back to bed for a little bit or something. The pain is really starting to get to me.

I just found out that I got an A- in my first half of Spanish! So happy happy! I must have done really well on my exam! This is exactly the motivation that I need to keep going. I’m just starting on the second half, and so far it’s been much harder, but at least knowing that I knew what I was doing for the first half lets me know that I have a good foundation. Also, it means that Mike is an excellent teacher and I’ll be peppering him with hugs and kisses once he gets home from work. To celebrate this awesome grade, I’ll get my wisdom teeth taken out tomorrow. Fun! The mini vacation from school will be needed though, and I’ll research my batteries a little bit. And most likely sleep a while. Today I’m trying to get a head start on school work and finish up our laundry, then I can just chill out for a few days. Chances are I may be so drugged up on painkillers that I won’t be posting or on msn much until the end of the week. But until then, YAY I GOT AN A!!!!!

Well, bah. I’ve been periodically checking what books I need to buy from the bookstore, so I can comparison shop and buy them cheaper. Amazon is my friend. So to go with that I made myself a handy little word document that I can keep everything at a glance, like assignments, course websites, office hours for profs and the whole nine yards. Come to find out, I have not one, not two, but THREE ESSAYS due on November 21st! Three!! How am I going to swing that one?! They are all worth 20%. Thankfully, I think one is only 1000 words but the other two are 2000. Yikes! I’m definitely going to be a busy girl, three day weekends or not! I’m going to need those weekends to essay-write like mad! Plus I also have two essays due October 17th. So I should definitely have a busy year, not to mention I still have those distance courses to finish up, but if I don’t have the Spanish and Martime History done by then it doesn’t really matter when I finish them because I’ll have a problem with my student loan.

I’ve apparently passed my Spanish course, because I got the second half in the mail already. I have no idea what my mark is though, I emailed the distance office today asking when I would find out because I would really like to know. I’m hoping for an A but a B would be alright. I’m almost done history, I plan to submit everything that’s left by tonight, so then I just have to wait for slow teachers to correct everything and then okay it for me to write the exam.

I’m still trucking along in that Athabasca course, but I’m not going too quickly in it, that’s for sure. I still haven’t done the first assignment, I was going to do it last night but it involves calling my teacher and when the time came I was feeling so out of it that I just took a mini nap on the couch next to Mike.

I’ve been taking these super strong painkillers for my toothache. Which turns out to be an infection in my wisdom teeth, so those have to come out. Next Tuesday is when my “surgery” is. Yippee. So I’ll be out of commission for a few days. Tuesday for sure is completely gone. I probably won’t even remember half of it. So I need to get moving on that school work on the weekends too it seems. :( And those were the only days off I had!

I can’t wait to be done these distance courses, they’re such a headache!

Oh, and in good and cool news, Mike surprised me with a Gameboy SP for an early birthday present and The Minish Cap game (in the Legend of Zelda series) so wee! It’s really nifty, you can actually SEE the screen, as opposed to the old Gameboys where you had to tilt it in some special way in the light. Boo to that, yay to the SP! I have the best fiance ever. :D He’s also taking good care of me when my pain killer meds make me feel sick, as I’m sure he’ll take good care of me when I’m drugged up next Tuesday.

Anyways, time to stop dilly-dallying and hit the books, I suppose.